Might Be Love
by LadyOfGlass
Summary: After the quest is over and the dwarves are once more settled in Erebor, Kili faces a challenge that might be a tad more enjoyable. Fili has found and married the love of his life, so why can't Kili do the same? And there is no one quite like Oddny (younger sister of Dori, Nori, and Ori), at least as far as Kili is concerned. Sequel to Of Plums And Journeys. Kili's POV. Kili/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Authpr's Note: So, here it is. The sequel, as it were to my Fili/OC story _Of Plums and Journeys_. It will most likely be a multi-chapter story. Gudny, Fili's new wife, appeared in _Of Plums And Journeys_, as did Oddny, whom I created to be Dori, Nori, and Ori's little sister, and who now has a story of her own.**

**This is set as if...certain dwarves survived the attempt to retake Erebor and not only that, they won. And this is what happens afterwards, in Erebor.  
**

**I apologize for any typos, I've been trying to get rid of them, but they keep turning up.**

"You're doing it again," said Fili, a tad accusingly, as he sat opposite me at the High Table in the Banqueting Hall.

I looked at him, assuming an expression of calculated innocence, that I'd spent most of my life perfecting.

"Doing what?"

"You know perfectly well what. Putting your feet up on the table, leaning back, and tossing that apple around," said Fili, clearly not in the mood to beat about the bush "Apart from the fact that you've got your dirty boots squarely on the sausages, you look like an idiot. Who are you trying to impress?"

I obligingly returned the aforementioned dirty boots to their rightful place under the table, and set the apple which I'd been using in my impromptu juggling performance back down.

"Nobody," I lied, scanning the crowded hall for one dwarf in particular, and not seeing her.

Fili opened his mouth to say something that would doubtless have been rather sarcastic, but didn't, because with a swish and swirl of skirts, Gudny, Fili's wife of two weeks had settled herself on the bench to Fili's right.

"Hello, Fili," she said helping herself to a generous slice of mutton "Kili."

"Hello, Gudny," I said, politely, beating her to the potatoes by a split second and scooping three onto my own plate before she could eat all of them.

Fili didn't utter a formal greeting, but the look that he gave Gudny was so brimming with unspoken words, that I felt obliged to studiously examine my recently acquired potatoes with an interest that no one has ever awarded before or since to a plate of slightly mushy tubers.

Oh, well, it was almost worth it to have Fili in such a practically permanent state of high spirits.

"How's the Armory work going?" I asked, when I had concluded my painstaking examination of the food before me, and falling back on the main topic of conversation among the dwarves residing in Erebor; the many repairs that were underway.

Even though Smaug had left the lower areas of the mountain more or less untouched, there was much work that needed to be done on the main gates, and many of the upper halls. Not to mention all the bits of gold and various treasures that had piled up in drifts everywhere.

"We've got most of the rats out, if that's what you mean," said Gudny, pausing in the act of stuffing her mouth with food "But Leif found another three of those wretched nests behind a rack of axes this morning."

"Filthy little creatures," Fili remarked, sympathetically "Breed like mad, too."

"Speaking of which," I said, brightly, and truly unable to stop myself "Ketil says he saw you two outside one of the forges and -"

I was, unfortunately, not able to continue, either, because at this point in the conversation, both Fili and Gudny uttered identical yelps, and proceeded to pelt me with potatoes and bits of seed-cake.

Well, it wasn't the sort of image of Dwarven Royalty that one generally wants to cultivate, to say the least. I was (unsuccessfully) trying to defend myself against this barrage with raised arms, and Gudny and my brother were hitting innocent bystanders half the time, which meant that all of us were choking with laughter.

And that's exactly how we looked when Nori and Ori arrived at our table. And it wasn't just them, either.

Oddny, their sister, was walking between them - her brown hair falling a little into her face and the slightly-too-long hem of her blue dress making her walk with an odd, stumbling gait. I hadn't had the chance to talk to her since Fili's wedding, but I'd been able to learn from Dori that she was about a year younger than Ori.

I'd been quite surprised at first to hear of Oddny's existence ("You have a sister, Nori? Where have you been keeping her all these years? Locked up in a cupboard?"), but now that I knew that Oddny was indeed related to them, I could immediately spot the similarities in their faces.

Oddny had the same slightly large nose as her brothers, the same face, and the same habit of pressing her lips together while thinking.

And a couple of unfortunately small, but still remarkable features that her brothers were of course, lacking in. Which I wasn't going to really describe.

"Hello," said Nori, reaching over Fili's shoulder to steal a slice of his seed-cake "Mind if we join you?"

"Of course not," Fili said, sliding closer to Gudny to make room "I think most of the potatoes are currently smeared all over Kili's face, and I wouldn't touch the sausages if I were you, but there's plenty of mutton left."

Nori and Ori squeezed in across from me, leaving Oddny standing awkwardly, unsure where to go. I shuffled along, catching her eye and gesturing to the empty space now to my left, and she smiled gratefully, before ducking around the end of the table to join me.

Oddny hesitated when she reached my part of the table, obviously uncertain as to how she was going to step over the bench, hampered as she was by her heavy woolen skirt.

"Er, here," I said, holding out a hand to help her.

_ 'Er'?_ I never said 'er'! Being unsure of oneself was for dwarves like Ori.

Oddny blushed, and mumbled ''nk you', taking my hand and carefully stepping up onto the bench, and then down on the other side.

We released hands as soon as she was settled, but I was suddenly and painfully aware that I was indeed covered in bits of potato and crumbs.

"You call this plenty?" complained Nori, taking Ori and Oddny's plates from them and beginning to divide the remaining mutton between them "We've been slaving away-"

"Not slaving," Ori said "Not exactly slaving."

"Well, working very hard, anyway, and we get here to find that you lazy buggers have been eating all the food."

"_Lazy buggers_?" I echoed, incredulously "I've spent all morning carting chests of treasure from the Treasury up to the Counting Halls."

"Pfft," scoffed Nori "That's nothing. I was dragging fresh blocks of stone all the way to the Main Gates."

"Think you've got it hard?" Fili said "I had to negotiate with the Lake-Town men over the price of three of their barrels of their finest ale."

"Fifty-two rats nests cleared in three hours," said Gudny, slamming her wine cup down on the table "That's what I call hard work."

"I had two dozen plans drawn up of the new designs for the gates," Ori put in, not to be left out.

Oddny didn't join in with a boast of her hard work, though she told me later that she'd been helping Dori to organize the storerooms, but she laughed at our remarks - a nice, happy laugh that I thought sounded very pleasant indeed.

"I've got blisters," I said, sticking out my hands for my companions to examine, and was rewarded with more laughter from Oddny "Big ones, too. Look!"

"Ooh, nasty."

"Ah, sorry Kili."

"That's nothing! I've got rat bites all over me."

We continued in this vein for nearly half an hour, while Nori, Ori, and Oddny finished their meal, and then Fili drained his cup and got up.

"I think I might go for a walk along the battlements. Are you coming, Gudny?"

Gudny got up to join him (needing no help to negotiate the bench), and the rest of us, sensing that this offer wasn't really open to anyone but her, did a commendable study of the crumbs and bits of mush left on our plates.

"Well," said Gudny "I really ought to get back to work, but..."

"If the nobility can't take a little time off, who can?" Nori mumbled, while poking a particularly large crumb with his finger, and staring at it, intently.

This seemed to convince Gudny, and she and my brother (with a few hurried, but fond farewells), headed out of the hall, making for the long staircase that lead to the battlements.

I watched them go, before turning back to Oddny, Nori, and Ori.

"I'm nobility, too," I grumbled "I'm done with lugging treasure chests about, and there's plenty of places left to explore. Are you coming?"

"We'd better not," said Nori, reluctantly "If only to escape a scolding from Dori."

"But all four of you - you're nobility, too!"

My companions all grimaced, and fluttered their hands as if to indicate that there was a delicate distinction that needed to be made.

"Well, sort of," said Ori.

"Maybe," Nori agreed.

"Dori says that we are, only 'on the wrong side of the blanket'," said Oddny.

We all considered this for a moment.

"What does that mean?" I asked, at last, frowning as I tried to figure it out.

"You know, I've always wondered about that myself," remarked Nori "Is it like waking up on the wrong side of the bed?"

"I asked Dori about it, once," said Ori "But he wouldn't tell me."

"When I asked, he said that he'd tell me when I was older," Oddny said.

With some effort, I put aside this mystery for future thought, and returned to the problem of trying to find someone to come exploring with me. I could always go down to the lower levels of Erebor, and look for some of the other lads from the Company.

But...

"Look," I said, lowering my voice slightly, as I leaned forward to look at Nori and Ori, earnestly "Why don't you to go back to work, and you can both make up excuses for Oddny-"

"Me?" yelped Oddny, shooting bolt upright in surprise.

"That might work," Nori said, thoughtfully "I'll tell Dori that Oddny's helping you draw up plans, Ori."

"And if Dori asks me, I can always tell him that she's moving stone with you," said Ori.

"With any luck, he won't have time to ask us both, before you get back," Nori concluded.

I jumped to my feet, pleased that Nori and Ori were going along with it, and stuck out a hand to help Oddny up. She took it and hopped over the bench to join me, smiling her smile that managed to be eager, and slightly nervous, both at the same time.

"Shall we go, then," I asked, as we both nodded brief goodbyes to Nori and Ori.

"Yes, please,' she said, in that curiously polite manner that Dori seemed to have instilled in all his younger siblings (apart from Nori) "Only...Kili?"

"Yes?"

"Maybe we should stop at the water barrel first? You've got potatoes, um, all over you, really."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Well...I haven't got an excuse. I vanished for months and...yeah, no excuse. Life happened. Events...occurred. I apologize for any drop in quality or any mistakes in grammar or spelling. The longer that you don't write, the harder it gets, and this chapter was quite tricky. I also apologize for not making too much happen in this chapter - there was going to be more, but I ran out of time. I hope the next chapter will work better. Happy reading.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. all belongs to J.R.R Tolkien and his estates.**

"You fought in the battle, didn't you? The one with the five armies?"

I looked at Oddny quickly, not having been expecting this question. We had spent the better part of the half hour that it had taken us to reach the first of the Low Halls in rather uncertain silence, broken only by the occasional remark upon the weather. I'd spent most of that time trying to think of something to say that was witty, clever, and interesting.

Really, I'd have settled for something that wasn't 'It's been raining a lot, hasn't it?'.

But here I was on firmer ground.

"Yes, I did," I said, sticking to the bare facts of the matter.

"Did you kill a lot of orcs, then?" asked Oddny, as we turned a corner, and started off down a long set of stone steps which lead to the next hall.

"Well, maybe a dozen - that is, two dozen," I said, modestly, before seeing Oddny's admiring expression and deciding to embellish the truth a little "And of course, there were quite a few wargs and trolls..."

Well, I had killed at least four wargs, I was sure of that. And there had been those three trolls, much earlier, which I hadn't exactly slain, but still, as long as she didn't probe for details...

"Trolls, too? Odd, I never heard about many of those being at the battle. Aren't they very hard to kill?"

"Well, to most, yes," I said, trying to sound as confidant and nonchalant as possible "But to a truly well trained warrior..."

Oddny nodded, seemingly satisfied with my rather vague answer, and I relaxed a little. We reached the bottom of the stairs, and found ourselves standing at the entrance of a large hall; one which, if it hadn't been for the large piles of rubble strewn here and there, would have been quite impressive.

I began the tricky process of clambering over the nearest mound of fallen stones that blocked our path, hoping that I wouldn't lose my footing and fall - not in front of Oddny.

"Kili...what's the Egg Incident?"

I staggered, sending a small avalanche of small stones tumbling down the side of the mound and only avoided tumbling down myself by a spectacular feat of balance. I looked back at Oddny, sharply, but she was seemingly absorbed in delicately picking her way over the rubble, eyes demurely lowered.

But was that a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth?

"What do you mean?" I asked, stalling for time.

"Well, whenever Nori and Ori are talking about your adventure, they always mention something called 'The Egg Incident', but when I ask them what it is, they always look at eachother and snicker and won't tell me."

I made a note to confront Nori and Ori about this, as soon as possible. We'd all promised never to mention the...incident in question again.

"Um..." I began, trying to think of the best way to explain, as I jumped down from the pile of stones "Well, you see, there are times, when you're out in the wild, with not much food left in your pack..."

"Go on," prompted Oddny, and now she was definitely holding back a laugh.

"You have to scavenge," I said "Like...eggs. You have to take eggs. From nests. And...there are times when whatever laid the eggs aren't pleased...and...events occur."

"Alright," said Oddny "I suppose I can fill in the gaps on my own, thank you."

She was standing poised on the last fallen stone that formed the edge of the mound, and I held out my hand to help her jump down to the ground.

"I'm fine, thank you," she said, and gently pushed my hand aside, then hopped down unaided, staggering slightly as she landed on the hard stone floor.

Unperturbed, I shrugged, and together we continued on through the hall, skirting around wreckage or, when no alternative presented itself, climbing over it.

Oddny stopped, after a while, and stared up at one of the few carvings in the stone pillars that had been left more or less, undamaged. This carving depicted a dwarf, standing by a large anvil, and carrying a truly large hammer. Etched underneath the carving were a series of runes - still legible , too.

"_The Learning Of The Craft_," I read, outloud.

"Is it hard?" asked Oddny, quietly "Not forging - I mean, being who you are. Being the nephew of the king."

"No," I said, without thinking, and then wondered if it was true "At least...I don't know. Being of the royal line...it's an honor."

"I didn't ask whether it was an honor or not - I asked if it was hard."

I sighed - I hadn't known that Oddny was one of those dwarves. The sort that, once they've put their mind to getting something out of you, will never stop until they have it.

"_Yes!_" I said, loudly, only wishing to move the conversation on to a different topic, as soon as possible "Yes, it is hard! My brother's the one who will become king, but that doesn't mean that anyone will ever stop reminding me what I should be and what I have to be, and no one believes that I can truly do a proper job of anything, on my own two feet, because I'm only the second prince, who will never do enough!"

There was a long, and rather strained pause, during which I took several deep breaths. Then Oddny reached out and touched my arm - she was small enough that reaching my shoulder would be uncomfortable, if not impossible.

"It's difficult, isn't it? My brothers - they're alright, but they- well, Nori runs off whenever he has the chance, and Dori doesn't want me and Ori doing the same, but at least _Ori_ has the chance to go and do things and go on adventures. Well, one adventure, anyway. But they just push me out of the way - me, their sister!"

"I know, and then they don't understand when-"

"Yes, they don't understand when you-"

"They don't even believe that you can do something-"

"Because they don't expect that you can-"

"But if they ever just looked and saw that you can manage on your own-"

"They might stop!"

"But they won't, because-"

"Because they could look forever and never see!"

"Right!"

"_Right!_"

We both stopped, now both out of breath, and, after a moment, grinned at each other. It was certain the most impassioned, and the longest exchange that we'd ever had. And...really, when she grinned, and looked truly happy...

Well, Oddny wasn't a bit like Tauriel- not in any way. No ethereal beauty about _her_, but...

Well, I was going to put that aside for future thought.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" I asked, and was rewarded by a pleasant, if rather breathless laugh from my companion "To say it all?"

"Yes, it does," said Oddny, straightening her tunic and then reaching up to try and rearrange her now slightly messy hair "It feels very good, to tell the truth."

She was plucking and tugging at the askew locks of hair, trying to get it all back into order, but she'd missed one stray wisp which was hanging down over her forehead. It made her look a little lopsided, so I decided to give her some help.

"You missed a bit," I said "Just...there. There, above your eye."

"What? Where? No, _wait - there?"_

"No, on the other side. _There._"

Oddny looked so flustered and anxious, that I gave up, and brushed the bit of hair away, myself. I wished I didn't, immediately afterward, because Oddny began to blush. And despite the fact that making her blush was both enjoyable, and quite easy, I couldn't escape the feeling that I'd somehow set us back a few steps.

For a few moments, there had been something there, that hadn't been, before. And now it was gone, and I felt oddly disappointed.

"Look," I said, trying to distract both her and myself "Walking is fine, in small amounts. Tell you what, Oddny - let's go, and...and have a drink."


End file.
